Barcelona confirm Neymar payment

Barcelona have confirmed that they have received the €222m required for Neymar to be bought out of his current contract.

The Brazilian told the Catalan club on Wednesday of his intention to move to Paris St-Germain and having paid the required release clause, he will complete the world record transfer in the next few days.

Earlier on Thursday La Liga rejected an attempt by the 25-year-old's lawyer from paying the fee at their offices, citing concerns the Qatar-backed club would be breaching Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

But it appears now that Barcelona are finally accepting that they are helpless to prevent the attacker from leaving.

"On Thursday afternoon Neymar's legal representatives visited in person the club's offices and made the payment of 222m euros in the player's name with regards to the unilateral termination of the contract that united both parties," a club statement read.

"[We] will pass on to Uefa the details of the above operation so that they can determine the disciplinary responsibilities that may arise from this case".

FFP rules stipulate that clubs cannot make losses of more than €30m over a three-year period.

PSG were fined for breaching FFP in recent years; how they will manage to try and ensure they are compliant this time remains very difficult to envisage.

La Liga president Javier Tebas was highly critical of the effect Qatar's spending on behalf of PSG would have.

"La Liga is positing that state-backed clubs that compete using 'financial doping' could destabilise professional football in Europe," he told AS.

Barcelona's eternal rivals, Real Madrid, take on Manchester United in the Uefa Super Cup on Tuesday, 8 August, [kick off 7.45pm Irish time] a match that will be shown live on BT Sport on the eir sport pack in Ireland.

eir sport channels are available across the eir Vision, Sky and Vodafone TV platforms as well as on the eir sport app. All 7 channels in the eir sport pack are available for free if you are a residential eir broadband customer.